TAWHIDIC WORLDVIEW

Al Faruqi in his book Tawhid: Its Implication for

Thought and Life has discussed on the five principles
of tawhid:
a) Duality
b) Ideationality
c) Teleology
d) Capacity of man and malleability of nature
e) Responsibility and Judgment
 a) Duality
The reality composed of two generic kinds:
i) God (Creator)
Refers to Allah (s.w.t). He alone is God, the Creator and has
no any association. He remains forever absolutely unique.
Refer to 42: 11, 6: 100, 6: 103.
ii) Non- God (Creature)
The order of the space-time, of experience, of creation. It
includes all creatures, the world of things, plants and
animals, human, jinn and angels, heaven and earth, paradise
and hell.
These two orders ( Creator & creature) cannot be united
with. The Creator cannot be transformed to become the
creature, nor the creature can be transformed to become a
Creator.
The two orders are absolutely different as far as their beings
and their experience are concerned.
b) Ideationality
It means the relationship between the two orders of reality
(Creator and creature) is ideational in nature.
Man is able to understand the relation between him and his
Creator through all sources of knowledge he possessed such
as through memory, imagination, reasoning, observation,
intuition, apprehension etc.
Basically, man can understand the wills of God- through
aql as well Divine revelations (Quranic verses and the
message of the Prophet).
c) Teleology
Teleology means that the nature of the cosmos is purposive.
It must serve a purpose assigned by its Creator.
In other words, the world has not been created in vain,
worthless or in spot; it is created with purpose. Refer to
3:191 & 21:16.
Everything that exits in this universe fulfills a certain
universal purpose. That is why we call the world as cosmos
or an orderly creation- not a chaos. Refer to 32:7, 87:2 &
36:12.
The cosmos has fulfilled the wills of God through the
necessity of natural law.
All creatures in this cosmos will necessarily follow the
natural laws determined by God like the changing of the day
and night, the movement of the planet, and the uniformity
system of the universe.
 For man, the wills of God are not necessarily being
actualized like the cosmos.
Two different functions of man:
a) Physical and psychic functions.
Physical and psychic functions of man are similar to the
other creatures in cosmos. They necessarily follow the
natural laws determined by God
i.e the function of human body, blood circulation, nerve
system etc.
b) Spiritual functions (mans forms of worship, his ritual
acts/ ibadah, his moral character behavior).
Actualization of the wills of God here depends on mans
own determination or freewill of choice- not necessarily
being actualized.
d) Capacity of Man and Malleability of Nature
Capacity of man
Since everything was created for a purpose, the realization
of that purpose must be possible in space and time.
As a subject of moral action, man must be able to change
himself, his fellow beings, his society, his nature and
environment.
He must be able to actualize the Divine wills and patterns
and to fulfill the Divine commandments- because he has
been given reason and revelation to conduct himself.
Malleability of nature
All Gods creations including mans physical and spiritual
natures must be malleable- can be transformable.
i,.e the nature of the universe is capable of changing its
substance , structure and conditions in order to conform to
the humans pattern and purpose.
e) Responsibility and Judgment
Man has certain responsibility and duties that need to be
fulfilled. Refer to 21: 23.
When man is responsible, he will be also accountable. He
will be judged with as far as his deeds are concerned.
Judgment is the necessary condition for responsibility. It
must take place either in the world itself or in the day of
judgment.
 THE CONCEPT OF TAWHID
Tawhid is the fundamental concept in Islam and it is
beautifully expressed in Surah al Ikhlas.
Tawhid literally means to believe, to uphold, and to declare
the Oneness of Allah.
It is derived from the Arabic word wahhada means to
unite, unify or consolidate, unification or asserting oneness.
Terminologically, tawhid means affirming Allah to be One
and Singular.
One means there is no God besides Allah, and Singular
means that God cannot be divided or compartmentalized
into different personalities.
 Tawhid can be concluded as the belief that Allah is One,
without partner in His dominion and His actions
(rububiyyah), One without similitude in His essence and
attributes (asma wa sifat), and One without rival in worship
(uluhiyyah).
We can derive three important aspects of tawhid:
i) to believe that Allah is the Creator, Nourisher and
Provider for all (rububiyyah).
ii) to believe that Allah is Being (zat) and has many
attributes (sifat) (asma wa sifat).
iii) to believe that worship is the exclusive right of Allah
(uluhiyyah).
 TAWHID RUBUBIYYAH
Rububiyyah is derived from the word rabb. The basic
meaning of rabb is to bring up.
Among other connotations are
- One who brings up, fosters or nourishes
- Guardian; one who supervises or is responsible for
carrying out improvements
- One who occupies a central position
- Master or Owner.
Tawhid rububiyyah means the belief in the Oneness of Allah
as the Lord, Sustainer, Creator, Controller, Master, Owner,
and Provider of the world.
So, it is the acknowledgment of Gods lordship.
 Refer to 64: 11, 39: 62, 73: 9, 11: 34.
There is no partnership in creation and controlling of the
universe.
If there had been more than One Creator, there would have
been chaos and conflict in the universe system.
Refer to surah al Anbiya: 22
If there were, in the heavens and the earth, other gods
besides Allah there would have been confusion in both.
False ideas of rububiyyah among the earlier people of the
earlier prophets can be divided into two categories:
i) In so far as rububiyyah in the supernatural senses are
concerned, they associated others with Allah.
ii) They did not regard Allah as the rabb with regard to
their mundane affairs like culture, social, politics etc. They
assigned the right to lay down all laws for these matters to
their priests, chiefs and the elders of their clans/ tribes and
they followed their dictates. Refer to 42: 21.
 Shirk in Rububiyyah could be either;
a) Association
- the belief that there are other beings/ things who had any
share in the lordship of Allah in creating and controlling the
universe; i.e in Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity,
Zoroastrianism and others.
b) Negation
- the belief that God does not exist (denial of the existence
of God); i.e Darwins theory of evolution.